Where is Caroline Forbes? That's the big question haunting Legacies viewers after the first episodes of the joint The Vampire Diaries/The Originals spinoff. But fans will just have to wait for answers. Executive Producer Julie Plec shared no hints on actress Candice King joining Legacies, but she did tease a slow-burning mystery attached to Caroline's absence.
Caroline gets mentioned quite a lot. Her absence gets mentioned a bit as well, in that she's been such a good mother, so why isn't she here? And there's a little bit of a long-term mystery attached to that we will slowly unravel. But the girls take after their mom. She's a good person, who as a teenager, wasn't always a nice person. So we get the ying and the yang of Caroline and Alaric and, of course, Jo, their biological mother. Whatever DNA she left them with is twirling around. Let's not forget these girls are related to Kai Parker by blood, so there's danger there, too.
Julie Plec dropped several little breadcrumbs in her comments to HollywoodLife. It's understandable why the characters would join the fans in asking about Caroline. The Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted is technically Caroline's house (thanks to Damon Salvatore), so if anyone should be at the central location of Legacies, it's Ms. Forbes-Salvatore even more than headmaster Alaric Saltzman.
Plus, Caroline is the surrogate mother of two of the Salvatore School students -- twins Josie and Lizzie Saltzman. Alaric is their father, with witch Jo Laughlin as their biological mother. It's certainly not a happy hint that Julie Plec would remind The Originals and TVD fans of the twins' connection to their malicious Uncle Kai Parker, who killed his twin sister Jo on her wedding day.
What "danger" is ahead for the teens? Gemini Coven twin danger? Could Kai somehow find a way to return and try to kill his nieces (again)? Not that we'd mind seeing actor Chris Wood again as Kai.
The Saltzman twins know Caroline as their mother, and -- as Julie Plec noted -- Caroline wasn't always Little Miss Sunshine as a teen herself. We're looking forward to seeing all the ways teen Josie and Lizzie take after Caroline, in that way and others.
Caroline was Miss Mystic Falls in The Vampire Diaries Season 1, back before she became a vampire. Plec previously told TV Guide that Legacies Season 1 will revisit that Vampire Diaries tradition. Since the twins are said to be involved in the new Miss Mystic Falls pageant, it would really be nice for their mom to return for that episode. Hint, hint, Candice King.
Also, The Originals alum Hope Mikaelson is basically the main character of Legacies, and her father Klaus has a long history with Caroline. It would be fun to get more into that, from teen Hope's point-of-view. #KlarolineForever
Julie Plec had warned fans that Caroline wouldn't be around at the start of Legacies. She'd stated Alaric knows she's off doing things that connect to the long-term survival of their twins. Hopefully patience pays off.
Meanwhile, we know Vampire Diaries alum Jeremy Gilbert will grace Legacies this season, along with other TVD characters like Sheriff Matt Donovan. Julie Plec said this spinoff would embrace more of a Monster of the Week format than usual, although she did hint to an "overall Big Bad" that would be introduced slowly across the first season. Will Caroline connect to that Big Bad? We'll see.
Legacies Season 1 continues Thursdays at 9 p.m. on The CW. Keep up on all of the new and returning shows in our fall 2018 TV guide.
